Marsu42 - I use the 85mm F1.8, the 24-105 and 70-200mm F2.8L IS mostly. The 70-200 gets used most of the day and exclusively for the couple portraits.

te4o - lighting for indoor shots is 98% on-camera flash. Always bounced, never direct. I did a few with an assistant holding an OCF to the side.

param - shots of shoes definitely. They spent time and money selecting them and want to remember them, as for all the other little details of the day. That's my take on it anyway.

felipey - re the DOF, I agree absolutely!

nameless - do I shoot wedding in Switzerland. No problem at all with that, as long as costs are covered from my base in London.

wockawocka - 98% ETTL. All the on-camera flash shots are in ETTL. All the night time couple shots where flash was used (not all of them) is also ETTL, including the very final shots which was nailed in one exposure. I use a little bit of manual flash for say group shots or in a very controlled setting.

May I ask how you lit the final shot? There seems to be very little light spill onto the grass

Sure. I agree that there is not much spill on the grass and there could maybe be a little bit more. I took an ambient exposure minus the couple and minus my assistant, then I moved the couple into position and my assistant into position about 15 feet away from them holding an Ezybox (with 430ex ii) on a monopod and aimed at the correct angle. I took a single exposure of this setup, zoomed in on the LCD and it was all crisp so moved on to the next shot.

In Photoshop I layered the shot with the couple + assistant over the ambient and using a lsyer mask and a lot of gentle blending on the grass I ended up with the final shot. I agree that it could maybe be improved if I showed a little more spill on the grass and included a shadow behind them. But I like it as is. Maybe I'll create another version though. Thanks for you input.

Orion

Beautiful images David. If I could offer just one point of constructive criticism, it would be to use a bit of a shallower depth of field in the wide indoor ceremony shots. To me personally, the bride and groom are lost in the midst of the sea of people and lack a little bit of focus as everyone is equally sharp. I saw you stopped down the 24-105 to f/5.6 but shooting it wide open could be nice to try too..

I would counter by pointing out that the stature and pose of the bride and groom make the image . . thier long slender shape in the middle of the group . . . they are clean cut out and it makes for a good time to use a smaller aperature of 7+. . . . it is working due to the clean white background too. You do not need a bigger aperature. . . you do not need the bokeh or to seperate the bride and groom from the rest in this case. That is not to say that using a wider aperature would be wrong. I guess that it wuld be best to have multiple aperatures in the same scene . .THAT is the key/point that many times people miss.

I am about to shoot my first wedding with the 5D3 in September - any tips?Did you use flash at all during the day?I was wondering whether to use my 580 EX for fill in or just leave it off?

Also, how did you get the lovely soft colour effect on your finished pictures - it's really nice for weddings.

I am not a pro - just an amateur and the wedding is my cousins so needs to be good!

Scott

I believe he already answered this question about flash. He uses it a lot."lighting for indoor shots is 98% on-camera flash. Always bounced, never direct. I did a few with an assistant holding an OCF to the side."

Do you not find that shooting at the slower shutter speeds (-200/sec) causes you any problems?

You prob aren't asking me but 1/200 is a good place to start if there is movement but for portraits with flash i often do 1/80 sec F5.6 iso 400. That is indoors. Just did that yesterday. I always use those settings then just let the flash compensate. I have never had ghosting in my images for portraits but if its really well lit with flash i would do 1/200 sec indoors or out. The slower shutter speed allows the ambient light to balance with the flash so it doesnt look black in the background. When its really dark i'll do 1/40 sec for portraits and it balances the light nicely. If you have ever shot receptions and dancing you will notice 1/40 sec with flash is plenty to stop motion but again only when it is dark.This image is in Manual F5.6 1/80sec ISO 400 using 580exII no flash comp and using a monopod with a Really Right Stuff Tilt head MH-02 Hi-Capacity Monopod Head with integral indexing lever-release clamp. I only used slight sharpening and a real slight curve, thats it. Straight out of the 5dm3 with 50L lens. I find the 5dm3 images require very little post processing.